A piece of meat is corned both to make it last longer and to improve the flavor of a frequently inexpensive cut. The most ancient process of corning simply relies on the steeping or macerating of pieces of meat in the salt solution, which may contain a flavoring or sweetening ingredient, for a long period of time, normally several days. Substantial time is needed in order to insure that the corning solution completely saturates the piece of meat being treated. The meat is made up of individual cells through whose walls the corning solution must pass osmotically, so the procedure is inherently slow.
In recent times mass-production corning has substantially cut down the overall treatment time by the main expedient of injecting the corning solution into the piece of boneless pork or ham by use of a multiplicity of needles. Thus the piece of meat being corned is passed through a machine having a vertically displaceable array of needles which descend into the piece of meat and inject it with the corning liquor. Such a procedure can cut down the treatment time substantially by insuring that the corning liquor does not have to soak from the outside of the piece of meat all the way to the inside. Still the time needed is substantial. Such an arrangement is described in German published patent application No. 2,700,125 filed Jan. 4, 1977 by H. Sommer and W. Schenbrenne.
It is also known to speed up the overall treatment time by agitating the piece of meat in a bath of the brine or corning solution. This procedure is preferably carried out after the meat has been injected with the corning solution, and can then cut the overall treatment time to 20-30 hours. German published patent application No. 2,712,258 filed Mar. 21, 1977 by P. Thirode describes such a system which also employs a subatmospheric pressure in the treatment hopper for further decreasing the treatment time.
It is also known to prick the surface of the meat in a multiplicity of locations, forming a multiplicity of entrance holes for the brine. Such methods are described in German published patent application No. 2,528,471 filed June 26, 1975 by P. Michaels and in German published patent application No. 2,615,003 filed Apr. 7, 1976.
At best these methods require a treatment time of about one day. Thus a great deal of equipment is tied up in the mass production of such corned meat products. As a result the cost of the products is elevated substantially.